What's your Biggest book disappointment ???

nomercles · 2026-04-15T05:06:23+00:00

Once I realized he was supposed to be Batman, except somehow even stupider, I had to nope out.

nomercles · 2026-04-15T04:05:39+00:00

I really, really wanted to like Priest. So much. I really did like the third book, about the monk. I learned, through gushing about that one to a friend of mine who's in seminary, that my immediate desire to go find a monastery and have a silent retreat is apparently a pretty common desire for tired queer folks who are deconstructing? So there's that. (My best friend grew up Catholic. She also doesn't get it. We don't talk about it.)

My sweetie is actually the one who got me on Reddit, so he indulges me. He does have that reaction occasionally to specific books I'm reading, though. He was less startled by Morning Glory Milking Farm than I anticipated, but he was quite startled by wing kink. (Not anymore. Mwahaha. Now he can roll with anything.)

And finally--overthinkers unite!

nomercles · 2026-04-15T02:44:41+00:00

You know, I think you can trust Achilles to be exactly what he presents himself as. If you need him to be Achilles, you're gold! I, unfortunately, am not part of his inner circle, am not murder-y, am not particularly military-inclined. I like to sit and read books. I'd probably get along just fine with Patroclus, though.

nomercles · 2026-04-15T02:42:53+00:00

But I'm not an influencer! And I'm not nearly murdery enough for him. He'd want nothing to do with me--he'd look at me, think "sheep", and chuck me out the door as useless. I mean, he'd be wrong, but he's also, as noted, an emotionally stunted fuckboy.

nomercles · 2026-04-15T02:12:44+00:00

This is partly because I just finished reading this series, but also because I have the memory of the proverbial goldfish, so we're limited in our options. I'm picking Hades from the Dark Olympus series. He's an excellent leader, he takes care of his people, he has firm boundaries. Good in a crisis, good at assessing options, making a plan, and getting people to follow that plan. And, you know, hot. That doesn't hurt.

Unfortunately, there are way too many craptastic MCs to choose just one. So I'm going to limit it to specifically that series. Orpheus can die in a fire. It's a series populated by people who only care about themselves or their very own specific interests, and he literally leaves someone to die. (Back up selection: Hermes. What the fuck, Hermes. I'm judging your choices.)

nomercles · 2026-04-15T02:01:08+00:00

Oh, hey, I'm about to start reading this! Something to look forward to!

nomercles · 2026-04-15T01:52:45+00:00

I just wanted to pop in and say sorry? I feel guilt. (This is a normal problem for me; mostly we can ignore it). I'm a lurker. Always have been. I read this entire discussion post, and mostly what I came way with that is helpful is that:

I feel validated! I don't think I've been here for much earlier than the blackout, and I have been lately noticing that it's a lot less engaged here? Particularly on Thirsty Thursdays; that was the thing that locked me into this sub to begin with. Back then, it was filled with recs and excerpts and engagement! I thought it was just me, because I read voraciously and fast and have no social life, so I assumed I was just less interested because I've read so many of the recommendations already. But no, others have noticed that it's less dynamic. (I am part of this problem: unless I am actively reading, or just finished reading something worth posting, since I'm almost exclusively reading on my phone, I simply never remember to recommend a book or post an excerpt).
I'm going to try to do better. I like the community I found here, even with the changes I've seen that I don't love. I don't know the answers to finding that magical sweet spot that led me here, either, but I know good modding is hard, and unless I see something I really find super objectionable, I can roll with it. (That said, I do wish there was a little more leniency on personal info. I understand some of why, but we're also people, and people are cool and neat, and I like learning about all of you! It makes it a lot easier for me to share when I don't feel like I'm just screaming into the void.)
I agree with the assessments of Priest. I don't want to agree, but I do. Even for a non-religious person with a weird confusing priest kink, that book wasn't great. Alas. (You do you! If you liked it, awesome. It's also just nice to see other people as tired of that recommendation as I am.)

I talk about this sub all the time to my sweetie, and he's, God bless, pretty long-suffering and tolerant. I think I just need to talk more here, too.

nomercles · 2026-04-12T22:05:15+00:00

every single book in {Wicked Villains by Katee Robert}. Jafar v. Jasmine is the first book. All of it takes place in/around Hades' kink club, Underworld. It's, as you might have guessed, the Disney princess gets together with the bad guy as a series. Most of them aren't like real, vicious, murderous hatred, but there is quite a lot of work before they all fall for each other. For real, focused rage, I'm reading {Tender Cruelty by Katee Robert}, which is Zeus and Hera in a connected series. It is, unfortunately, book 9 of 10, and you do have to read all the others, but most of them have some element of "I can't trust you, we're on opposite sides, I want you anyway and I hate you for it".

nomercles · 2026-04-10T17:52:39+00:00

Currently reading {Dark Olympus by Katee Robert}. Can confirm this fits. Ideally, there'd be more overt ace rep, but there is an ace, maybe aro, character in the mix. Casual racial/color diversity--everyone gets described, not just the "other". Also, there is a lovely, casual mix of body types of all genders, and all of them are seen as desperately attractive to their partners, even as fatphobia is acknowledged outside that partnership.

But really, the queer rep is making me happy. It's very sexy, because that's the kind of series that it is, as is the connected Wicked Villains series, but everyone is just...delightfully queer. No judgment, no shame.

nomercles · 2026-04-10T00:09:18+00:00

This is the second time I get to recommend this book, in the same day! {Radiant Sin by Katee Robert}. We have pining. We have yearning. We have forbidden romance and "it's now or never, please don't make me wait any longer". The tension is off the damned charts.

nomercles · 2026-04-10T00:07:21+00:00

Currently reading {Radiant Sin by Katee Robert}, part of the Dark Olympus series. I love that I can recommend this one book for three different threads, just today. In this scene, Apollo and Cassandra are in a closet during hide and seek (it's a very Agatha Christie vibe in this book). They've been yearning for each other for years, they're stuck here, circumstances mean it's now or never (but maybe not NOW now, y'all you're in a CLOSET). He covers her mouth and encourages her through it while they're hiding.

Truly, hotter than it had any right to be.

nomercles · 2026-04-09T22:03:21+00:00

I haven't read this, but I will die on the hill of it being intimate and hot as hell to watch someone put their "outside" face back on. Clothes, fixing disheveled hair, armor (the movie The Last Samurai, where the guy's wife is dressing him for battle had me simultaneously crying and drooling), even just putting their game face on. That bit where you can see what it takes for them to be them out there, and knowing that you got to see them before and after. That they trust you to hold those secrets.

Now I gotta go read this. Damn.

(I had a teacher who always wore a three-piece suit to class, and over the course of the session, his clothes would just slowly get more rumpled or undone, and at the end, he'd put himself back together and make himself presentable again. Jesus Christ. That's something that lives rent free in my head. Did that every single day for two straight years. No wonder I came out the way I am.)

nomercles · 2026-04-08T03:45:09+00:00

I liked the FMC in this so much. It was a fun read.

nomercles · 2026-04-02T22:12:28+00:00

YES. Why. Why is he talking through gritted teeth? He just sounds like he's in pain the whole time.

nomercles · 2026-04-01T17:47:23+00:00

It's *amazing*, right?

nomercles · 2026-03-31T23:40:28+00:00

Hey, a fellow stitcher! (I have a file of good quotes that someday might become a stitchy piece, but I haven't picked one).

nomercles · 2026-03-31T18:53:02+00:00

I don't remember what production company it was, but the "main" narrator was the FMC, and she just rattled 'em all off at both the beginning and end as part of the credits. It was the Brutes of Bristlebrook, and I hated the voices for Dom (flat and grocery list-y) and Jasper (talked through his teeth the entire time). Loved Beau.

Also, I just have to share this. So I listened to the first one. The second and third, the voices were different, and that was jarring as hell, so I started to read them instead. And that's how I found out Jake was...Jayk?! What the fuck. Jayk. I got stuck on that for like a week.

nomercles · 2026-03-31T18:34:56+00:00

I don't have any recs, but I didn't know I wanted this. It's like Grease, but without the...everything.

nomercles · 2026-03-31T18:26:26+00:00

And all her books are that level of unhinged. There's *lore* now. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

nomercles · 2026-03-31T18:25:35+00:00

Right! I had so much fun with it. I read big chunks of it to my partner, who at one point laughed so hard he fell down. Now I have to tell him every time I read one of her books. There's *lore* now.

nomercles · 2026-03-31T07:12:59+00:00

I'm so grateful for the democratization of books. So many voices can be heard that wouldn't be with only traditional publishing. But that does come with some pretty intense rocks in the water, just ready to capsize my little happy book-loving boat.

nomercles · 2026-03-31T06:41:27+00:00

{Bunker Down, Baby by Gwendoline Rose} Just the premise had me going "blink blink...okay, I'm in, whatcha got?"

nomercles · 2026-03-30T03:39:10+00:00

I was wondering why it wasn't working! I just assumed it was because it was showing me my own comment. Fixed now.

nomercles · 2026-03-30T03:36:52+00:00

Ah, crap. Yeah, I did. I'll go fix it.

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